Coding agents

The job

A coding agent reads a codebase, edits files and runs commands on a developer's behalf, usually from a plain-language request. Others in this group sit around an agent, adding a workspace, memory, a model gateway or a remote view.

How they differ

Some are the agent itself, started in a terminal or editor. Examples are codex, gemini-cli, cline, opencode, goose, fx, openinterpreter. DeepSeek-Reasonix lets you pick the model service.

A second kind is a workspace that runs several agents side by side, often in separate git worktrees. Orca, bb, monocode and OpenHands give a window or web page. Herdr and tuios are terminal multiplexers that show which agent awaits an answer. Firstmate and munder-difflin put one agent in charge, and openrig defines a named team of roles.

A third kind adds memory or a map of the code. Claude-mem and ai-memory carry notes from one session to the next. Codegraph, codebase-memory-mcp and ripwire index a repository so an agent reads less, and Understand-Anything draws a map to explore.

A fourth kind sits between the agent and the model service. OmniRoute, magpie and router switch between providers or accounts. Headroom and caveman trim the text sent to a model. Cc-switch edits provider and MCP settings for several agents.

A fifth kind reaches agents from another device. Cindy continues a session across computers and a phone. Coucou, on a Mac, shows agent sessions and lets the user approve their requests. KiroCrew runs agents on schedules and answers in chat apps.

A sixth kind builds on or wraps one agent. Oh-my-pi forks pi, SoL-Pi extends it, and oh-my-hermes adds task graphs to Hermes Agent. Autoharness turns sessions into skills, loopx keeps goals and evidence across long sessions, and dsh-TUI is a terminal interface for DeepSeek Harness. Atlas, Trail-Code and openwiki keep records of sessions, learnings and code for a team. Omnigent and harnessrouter sit over several agents, codex-with-chatgpt links ChatGPT to a local workspace, OpenMausBot runs command-line agents as chat bots, CLI-Anything wraps other software, and modlens adds image reading.

A few do one narrow job: rea studies compiled programs, OfficeCLI edits Office files, and open-code-review comments on diffs.

Licences

On 10 November 2026, GitHub detected MIT or Apache-2.0 on most of the tools here. PI-Desktop carried LGPL-3.0. A licence can change, and each tool's own page gives the latest reading with its date.

What to check first

Several projects say the agent acts with wide rights by default. Pi says it has no permission system and uses the launching user's full rights, opencode calls its build agent full-access, and fx changes files and runs tests unprompted. Openrig says its kernel has broad permissions, with no approval prompts on codex. Cline has an auto-approve toggle, and firstmate a merge mode flagged +yolo. OpenHands warns that installing without a sandbox leaves the agent with full filesystem access. Goose's agent installs, runs and edits software on the machine, the project says.

Other tools read logins or rewrite setup. Magpie reads the sign-ins that agents keep, including the macOS Keychain, unless discovery is switched off. Caveman's installer finds the agents and logins on a machine and changes their setup. Cc-switch, TokenEconomizer and OfficeCLI edit other tools' configuration. Zeron warns that devices signed in together can read and write one another's workspace files. Openwiki edits other agents' skills folders and MCP settings and can store OAuth tokens for Gmail, Slack and X. Atlas records every session once capture is on, and its cloud projects share the records across a team. Trail-Code reads past Claude Code sessions and adds hooks.

Some send data out: bb, orca, thinkrail, OpenResearch and claude-mem describe usage analytics, and graphify says some content may leave the machine.

Oh-my-pi's README lists stealth browsing as enabled unless changed, so look at each site's terms, and mentions an embedded bash engine. A downloaded script run by a shell installs codex, goose, jcode, opencode, openinterpreter, pi, oh-my-pi and oh-my-hermes. Modlens sends pasted images to an outside vision engine and may reuse a CLI's login.

Claw-code, deepseek-harness, atomic-agent, PI-Desktop and maka declare early status, and atomic-agent adds that redacting secrets is not complete isolation.

Omnigent picks up credentials already in the environment, and its Windows backend does not isolate files or the network. OpenMausBot can be handed the host computer once opted in. Harnessrouter's container needs root and should stay local until its first password is changed. Codex-with-chatgpt exposes a workspace through a tunnel, and its skill updates itself daily. SoL-Pi, dsh-TUI, loopx and CLI-Anything call parts experimental or in development.

Cindy's phone remote desktop can operate a connected computer, and munder-difflin's coordinating agent settles routine requests itself. Bb warns that its remote modes open an API with no authentication that runs commands and reads files, and pi-web that its password login is off by default. Cindy, munder-difflin and graphify have paid parts.